Dual hopper tubular food product launcher and method with robotic pick belt

Abstract

A tubular food product launching system and method for interacting with a product loading head is disclosed. The system includes a pick belt, positioned alongside product carrying intermediate belts. The pick belt supplies additional product to a product inspector or vision equipped robot cell to replace defective or missing product observed on the intermediate belt(s) with replacement product from the pick belt. The overall system speed, and pick belt speed, can be adjusted to accommodate varying product post-launcher fill-rates in accord with the nature of the product and the abilities and speed of the robot cell and/or product inspector, so as to reliably assure 100% final fill-rate as product is fed to the loading head.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A tubular food product launcher system for supplying a loading head, comprising:
 a product supply for supplying product at a selected feed rate; 
 an intermediate product carrying belt for accepting product from said product supply and carrying said product along a first direction through an excess product rake, for removing excess and misaligned product from said intermediate belt, and toward a loading head; 
 a pick belt, also receiving product from said product supply, running alongside said intermediate belt in said first direction, said pick belt feed rate being separately controlled from the feed rate of said intermediate belt; and, 
 an inspection station for removing and replacing defective product on said intermediate belt post rake, said inspection station replacing product on said intermediate belt with product selected from said pick belt. 
 
     
     
       2. A launcher system as in  claim 1 , wherein: 
       said inspection station includes a product inspector. 
     
     
       3. A launcher system as in  claim 2 , wherein: 
       said pick belt operation is controlled by said product inspector. 
     
     
       4. A launcher as in  claim 1 , wherein: 
       said inspection station is a vision equipped robot. 
     
     
       5. A launcher as in  claim 4 , wherein: 
       said robot includes an operation system inter-related with operation of said pick belt operation. 
     
     
       6. A launcher as in  claim 5 , wherein: 
       said feed rate from said product supply to said intermediate belt is capable of being varied between 95-120% of the capacity of the intermediate belt to receive product. 
     
     
       7. A tubular food product launcher system for supplying a loading head, comprising:
 a dual hopper equipped product supply for supplying product at a selected feed rate; 
 an intermediate product carrying belt for accepting product from a first hopper of said dual hoppers in said product supply and carrying said product in a first direction through an excess product rake, said rake removing excess and misaligned product from said intermediate belt and returning said removed product to a second of said dual hoppers in said dual hopper equipped product supply, and toward a loading head; 
 a pick belt, receiving product from said second hopper in said product supply, running alongside said intermediate belt in said first direction, said pick belt feed rate being separately controlled from the feed rate of said intermediate belt; and, 
 an inspection station for removing and replacing defective product on said intermediate belt post rake, said inspection station replacing product on said intermediate belt with product selected from said pick belt. 
 
     
     
       8. A launcher system as in  claim 7 , wherein: 
       said inspection station includes a product inspector. 
     
     
       9. A launcher system as in  claim 8 , wherein: 
       said pick belt operation is controlled by said product inspector. 
     
     
       10. A launcher as in  claim 7 , wherein: 
       said inspection station is a vision equipped robot. 
     
     
       11. A launcher as in  claim 10 , wherein: 
       said robot includes an operation system inter-related with operation of said pick belt operation. 
     
     
       12. A launcher as in  claim 11 , wherein: 
       said feed rate from said product supply to said intermediate belt is capable of being varied between 95-120% capacity of said intermediate belt to receive product. 
     
     
       13. A tubular food product launcher system for supplying a loading head, comprising:
 a first product supply for supplying product at a selected feed rate; 
 an intermediate product carrying belt for accepting product from said first product supply and carrying said product in a first direction through an excess product rake, for removing excess and misaligned product from said intermediate belt, and toward a loading head; 
 a pick belt, receiving product from a second product supply, running in said first direction alongside said intermediate belt, said pick belt feed rate being separately controlled from the feed rate of said intermediate belt; and, 
 an inspection station for removing and replacing defective product on said intermediate belt post rake, said inspection station replacing product on said intermediate belt with product selected from said pick belt. 
 
     
     
       14. A launcher system as in  claim 13 , wherein: 
       said inspection station includes a product inspector. 
     
     
       15. A launcher system as in  claim 14 , wherein: 
       said pick belt operation is controlled by said product inspector. 
     
     
       16. A launcher as in  claim 13 , wherein: 
       said inspection station is a vision equipped robot. 
     
     
       17. A launcher as in  claim 16 , wherein: 
       said robot includes an operation system inter-related with operation of said pick belt operation. 
     
     
       18. A launcher as in  claim 17 , wherein: 
       said feed rate from said product supply to said intermediate belt is capable of being varied between 95-120% of the capacity of the intermediate belt to receive product.